


The World in Your Eyes

by yamifizzy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Angst, Angst and Humor, Depression, Insomnia, Loss of Parent(s), Love/Hate, M/M, Student Eren Yeager, Teacher Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Teacher-Student Relationship, Underage Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-02-28 14:42:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2736368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yamifizzy/pseuds/yamifizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren realizes Levi is nothing like his other teachers.</p><p>Levi fails to realize Eren is not like his other students.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Peculiar Teachers, Unpredictable Students

**Author's Note:**

> Taeyang - Eyes, Nose, Lips

Today will be my last first day of school.

The time after waking up and walking to the bus stop goes by too quickly. I wake up early, it is the first day of school after all. The fact that I went to sleep early last night is also a bonus. Waking up, showering and getting dressed goes by smoothly. When I’m ready, I go out into the kitchen to find Mikasa already dressed up. She’s wearing black skinny jeans and a short sleeved red shirt, along with black ankle boots.

She’s packing her lunch into the lunch bag I recently got her.

At first she was reluctant about taking it due to our money problems. However, after I insisted that the money I used was the extra from my job that was left over after paying the bills, and that her old bag was falling apart anyways, she wearily took it, saying she’d pay me back. She has tried a couple of times, but the money always ends up back in the lunch bag.

“Good morning, Eren,” Mikasa doesn’t even look my way to know it is me. Is not like she needs to, it’s only us two in this small apartment.

“Good morning,” I reply back, this time making eye contact. There’s a glint in her dark grey eyes, a subtle smile in her lips.

“You woke up without having me to do anything about it.” I chuckle at her words, thinking back to all the other times she had to drag me out of bed so I could make it to school on time.

When she hears my quiet laugh, her smile grows and moments like these are the ones I cherish the most.

“It is the first day of school Mikasa, I think everyone gets out of bed without having someone else do it for them.” This time she’s the one chuckling at my words.

“You’re right,” she states, grabbing her lunch bag, already filled with what she’s going to be eating for lunch and dinner.

“What did you make?” I walk towards the stove to see.

 “For me I made real food, and for you I made the only thing you like to eat,” She sticks her tongue out at me and laughs. I can see today is already a good day.

When I take a look at what’s inside the first pot, I see she has made my favorite, ramen noodles.

“Well, I have to go.” She comes back into the kitchen with a black sweater on. “Make sure you eat breakfast, don’t miss the bus, and behave at school.” I have the urge to say “Yes mother” but that would just ruin everything we’ve already built.

She tightly hugs me as I mumble a quiet thanks. She feels warm. So warm and secure, I don’t want to let go.

“Alright.” She lets go. “See you tonight, unless you want to go to sleep early like last night. I see it has paid off.” She smiles again, the glint still in her eye. She pats my head when I don’t say anything back. Then when I smile again she stops patting and walks away towards the door.

“Bye Eren,” she says after she’s opened the door. “I love you.”

“Bye Mikasa. I love you, too.” She smiles at me and does a little wave right before she closes the door and there’s only me left in the apartment.

I take a bowl from the drying rack, along with a fork. When the soup fills the bowl up to the brim, I put it down on the counter and eat it right there. I never really sit down to eat when I’m at home. The dining room table already forgotten for months now. When Armin comes over he sometimes sits there, but only to do homework.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

When I exit my apartment, Armin is already waiting for me at the bus stop, today is his last first day of high school.

He notices me before I reach him.

“Eren!” He quietly shouts my way. The attempt makes me laugh. He’s not the type to shout at people, except when extremely necessary.

When I’m standing next to him he hugs me like we didn’t just see each other yesterday.

“You’re here on time.” He grins at me once he lets go, his expression tells me that he’s genuinely surprised.

“That is because I actually woke up on time!” I sarcastically tell him. “On my own,” I add, just to see his already surprised expression get even more surprised. I didn’t know that was even possible, but Armin’s always proving me that things I once thought impossible are possible.

Before he could reply, we hear the bus coming our way. We both look at each other at the same time, obvious that we are thinking the same thing, and we know we are thinking the same thing.

“Are you ready?” The grin he previously had has disappeared, making his whole expression solemn and contemplative.

I nod and give him a sideway smile.

“I’m ready,” and just when the words leave my lips the bus is standing right in front of us, opening its doors to let us in. In that moment I see it, I _feel_ it. Just like those doors opened in front of me, a new door has opened in my life, and if I’m willing to enter there are millions of opportunities awaiting me. With no hesitance at all I enter the doors, ready to leave the past behind and start something new. When I take the first step up the small steps, I feel that what’s to come next will not compare to what used to be. And in that moment I regret ever thinking I had reached a dead-end, because here I am, entering a high way with hundreds of exits ahead of me, all leading me to something new, something different. As I walk down the bus isle, the words I recently said leave my lips once again.

“I _am_ ready,” This time the words are spoken to myself.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

We make it to the school after a quiet bus ride. Armin stared out the window the whole time, always fascinated by looking at the outside world and taking everything in. I sat next to him, staring at my hands, thinking about everything at once.

We get off the bus and walk toward the entrance of the school, the name SHIGANSHINA HIGH SCHOOL in white and blue letters catches my attention. Under it, in smaller letters it reads _Home of the Titans_.

There are already a good amount of students going inside the school, others just hanging out at the front, probably catching up with their friends they didn’t see during the summer.

 “I’ve got to say, I did not miss this place at all.” I glance towards Armin, who’s been quietly walking by my side right from when we entered the school’s corridors.

He looks at me with a knowing smile, we both know his feelings towards school during the summer were completely opposite of mine.

“And I’ve got to say, I was waiting for this day since school ended in June.” I roll my eyes at him, completely believing him even though he might be exaggerating a bit.

We continue to walk towards our lockers, the same ones we’ve had since freshman year. I observe my surroundings, taking everything in. Everything’s the same as last year, as far as I can tell. Some things might have changed, but it’s not like I would notice. Last year was a blur and I wasn’t a regular attendee anyways.

“Armin.” I disrupt our silence. “Is it just me or are the freshmans this year easy to tell apart I mean look at their size!”

Armin laughs at my statement, taking a while to be able to respond. “No Eren, it’s not just you. As time goes by, they turn smaller and smaller.”

A boy walking in front of us turns around and gives us a dirty look, then turns back around and starts walking faster. By the size of him I can tell he’s a freshman.

“Oh-uh.” Armin says. “I think you’ve upset someone.” His voice is airy, but underneath I can tell he feels a bit regretful for talking bad about the freshmans and one of them hearing.

“I was just telling the truth!” I defend myself.

“Uh-huh,” Is all he says. I can tell he’s still in thought about what just happened, probably thinking about how to make it up to the poor boy. So I attempt to change the subject.

“So how’s your schedule this year? Did you change anything about it after it came in the mail?”

It takes Armin a second to process what I said, too lost in thought to pay me any attention.

“No.” He responds a couple of seconds later.  “I left everything as it was.”

“So that means we will still have that tourism class and European history together?” I try not to hide my excitement but majorly fail.

“Yes, Eren.” He laughs, his mood already back to normal. “What about you, are you still in that AP Literature class?”

We reach our lockers and I take out my schedule to look at my lock combination, but also to show Armin that I still have AP Lit written in the 8th period slot. I quickly read the numbers 12-25-09 before handing the schedule to Armin.

“Wow, how did you even manage to get in that class?” He looks at me and I raise my shoulders in uniform, telling him I have no clue.

“Wait,” he says, stopping me in my tracks. “Is this a new schedule?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” I curiously look his way.

“You marked up the last one remember?” I nod. “Why did you get a new one?”

I think for a second, not able to come up with anything. “I don’t know. I just got it in the mail about two weeks ago. It’s the same as the last one. Didn’t you get another one in the mail?” Armin shakes his head, proving my theory that they sent the students their schedules twice wrong. “Then I don’t know why they sent it to me twice. It’s exactly the same as the last one.” I continue putting my books in my locker, but Armin’s still inspecting the paper.

“Wait, here.” I look at where he’s pointing. “The teacher you had here for AP Lit was Ms. Ral, she’s the only one that teaches that class. Well was, because look, it says your teacher is going to be Mr. Ackerman. I’ve never heard of him before, he must be new.”

“Wow. Armin, I didn’t even notice that. You’re a genius.” He laughs and hands me back the schedule.

“You’re calling me a genius when you’re the one with a schedule full of hard classes, and you don’t even have a lunch period. Who are you and what have you done with the real Eren?” I laugh at his words, taking a look at my schedule again.

All the classes I decided to take were way out of my league. The names _Physics_ , _Pre-Calculus_ , _German_ , _European History_ and lastly _AP Literature_ jump out at me. I don’t know how my councilor even let me take those classes, maybe it was because I told him that I was going to try my hardest to come to school every day and do all my work. And after a couple of pleases and a couple of promises, he agreed, warning me that he’d keep a close eye on me and to not let him regret his decision.

“Those classes are not so hard. You’re the one with all the AP classes Armin,” I tell him, closing my locker and waiting for him to finish putting his stuff away.

“True. But weren’t you the one telling me that you were going to change all those classes for easier ones. And Creative Writing? Since when do you like to write?” He looks at me skeptically, knowing writing is nowhere near my expertise, hell I’d only picked up a book for the first time and finished reading it this past summer.

“Well, ever since I started working with you at your Grandpa’s book store I’ve developed a love for literature, and I’ve already mastered reading, with your help, of course. I’ve decided I want to master the art of writing as well.”

He laughs at me for the nth time today. “I see reading has improved your chose of diction as well.”

I lightly punch him on his shoulder, and he just keeps laughing. I notice he’s done putting his stuff away so I close his locker, receiving a little whine from his part.

“Hey!” he punches me back, well, more like taps me, his laughter dying down.

“You were done already, the bell’s gonna ring any moment now anyways.”

“Okay,” he puts his bag strap over his shoulder and we start walking towards the senior’s floor. “You have physics first right?” I nod in response.

“You?”

“AP Calc.” I roll my eyes at him, he’s too smart for his own good. When we’re already at the fourth floor, we say goodbye to each other. Armin walks towards the math wing and I make my way towards the science wing.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

Shiganshina High School is firstly divided into grades by floor levels. First floor is for freshmans, second for sophomores, third for juniors and lastly fourth for seniors. Then each floor is divided into wings, such as the English, Math, Science, and Social Studies and Language wings. The other creative classes such as Music has its own wing in the second floor, which sticks out of the building. Below it the cafeteria could be found. On the opposite side of the school, the Art wing is on the second floor and below it, there’s the gym. All the lockers are located around the gym and the cafeteria. The other elective classes are in their respective wings. I have two electives, Creative Writing, which is in the English wing and Hospitality and Tourism, located in the Social Studies wing.

After Physics class, which proves to be boring like any other science class, I make my way towards the gym, having Physical Education as my second period class. After that is Creative Writing the class I was expecting the most, the teacher is a little off, which doesn’t surprise me, all English teachers are crazy, but I still like them nevertheless.

After that class I have German in the language wing. I didn’t understand anything the teacher said.

Finally Tourism class rolls around, and I’m not surprised to find Armin already in class, sitting in one of the front desks, the row right in front of the board. I chuckle to myself as I walk towards him, taking the seat next to him. In the other classes I sat near the middle, but some teachers still tried the whole assigned seats concept. Hopefully it doesn’t happen in this class, not that it’d affect Armin in any ways, his last name being Arlert always has him as number one in any attendance list.

He greets me once he sees me, and I do the same back. When the bell rings to start the period, Armin stays still and listens to every word the teacher says. There’s a visible sparkle in his blue eyes, which are a bit wide as he follows the teacher’s every move.

Armin has always loved learning about the outside world, always wanting to travel and visit new places. When he heard this class existed, he almost died of happiness, talking about it nonstop. I shared his same wishes, so I decided to take the class with him.

When class ends Armin looks happier than he’d looked all day. I had passed him a couple of times in the hallways and all he said was see you in _Tourism class_. The way he said it was like he had found a new religion. He did kind of worship everything that had to do with traveling.

We make our way to our second class together, European History. The classes we share are right after the other, something we are both thankful for. Armin could’ve taken the AP course of said class, but he wanted to be in the same class as me. History is Armin’s favorite class. He loves that he gets to learn things from other places that he has never been to.

“So what’d you think?” I don’t even have to tell him about what, he knows what I mean.

“It’s great, I love it!” He dreamily smiles. “I can’t wait to see how it all unravels.”

Seeing him smile warms up my heart. I hope to see the day when Armin is finally able to pack up a suitcase and go somewhere far away, able see the rest of the world for the first time. 

“I’m glad,” is all I say, my own smile in place.

We reach our next class, which doesn’t take long because it’s in the same wing. Again, we sit at the front, glad that just like the last teacher, this one doesn’t do the assigned seats. Class passes by in a normal rate. The teacher is not boring, but not exciting either. I’d say he’s just right. Like everyone else has done today, he explains the course, how the grades are divided and what’s expected of us along with everything else I’ve already heard. I tune her out, looking at Armin who is still smiling although I’m sure he’s the only one and the teacher might be looking at him weird because what he’s saying is nothing to smile about.

The class ends and I say goodbye to Armin. Once again taking our own different paths.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

After Pre-Calc ends, it’s finally 8th period, the last class of the day. I walk to AP Lit, excited to be in an AP class for the first time in my life. The fact that I’m not even supposed, or allowed, to be in that class makes it more exciting. It’s a miracle no one noticed the mistake and put me in regular English, no, not a miracle, coincidence perhaps.

I enter the room, there’s no teacher in sight. Majority of the class is already inside, quietly sitting down. I walk to the back, the last desk in the last row, the one right next to the window. I might have gotten in the class but I know I don’t belong here. Sitting in the back, the farthest from the teacher I can be, is the best.

Then right when the bell rings, the teacher walks in. The first thing I notice is how young he looks. He has to be in his early twenties, not much older than me. The second thing I notice is his eyes. They are grey, almost silver. The way he scans the room makes them look intimidating, sharp. Then I notice his height. He has to be about 5ft tall, no more. His hair is black, jet black. He has an undercut, like he belongs in the military. His expression is calm, and I can see a small frown, like he doesn’t want to be here at all.

He coughs, probably to get our attention. My eyes move from his face and I can see what he’s wearing. He has a white dress shirt on, no tie. There’s a black blazer on top, one he’s currently taking off because he must’ve just noticed it’s really hot in the school, which leads me to believe he was recently outside and he just came inside. He’s also wearing black dress pants that hug his legs way more than normal dress pants should, like they’re skinny jeans. Instead of wearing dress shoes, he’s wearing leather boots, and although I’m all the way in the back I’m guessing they’re real leather.

When the blazer is finally off, I can see his muscles through his shirt, which is a bit see through. He looks like a model, a pissed off model at that.

He coughs again, to completely catch our attention. When he deems that all our eyes are on him—why wouldn’t they be—he opens his mouth to speak.

“My name is Levi Ackerman but you will all call me Levi.” He turns around, grabs a marker and writes Levi on the board, probably so we don’t forget. “I will be your AP Literature professor this year. This is my first time teaching _high school_ students, I prefer to teach college students for various reasons.” I find the way he says high school students strange, but I can’t explain why.

“For those of you interested, I teach at Utopia University, I was a former student there as well.” Various gasps could be heard across the room. Utopia University is the most prestigious university in the whole country. Only the most intelligent and richest people attend there. I used to have dreams about going there, but all those dreams have banished now.

“Unlike every other teacher has probably done today, I will not be going over the curriculum or things of such matter.” He starts pacing around the front of the room, keeping his eyes on us. “I’ve been informed you had summer assignments to do.” My heart stops. “But I find summer assignments overrated and in no way helpful in the way I’ll be teaching you, so I won’t be grading them, or collecting them for that matter.” I hear a couple of gasps in the room, some students whispering among themselves, probably complaining about how long it took them to finish their assignments. I, on the other hand, let out a big sigh. I didn’t even know we had a summer assignment, well, I did hear Armin talking about having to do summer assignments for his AP classes, but at the time I didn’t know I was actually going to take this class.

Mr. Ackerman stops pacing upon hearing his class erupt into whispers. He just stands there, waiting for the students to shut up. When they notice he’s just been standing there, they get the point and the whispers die down. When Mr. Ackerman is sure the classroom is completely silent, he speaks again.

“Now, I wouldn’t be too bothered by the fact that I won’t be grading your papers, I’m sure most of you copied the answers from the internet. That sparksnotes website is it?” He raises an eyebrow after his statement, a visible devilish look in his eyes. The students just stare at him wearily, asking themselves if they should be concerned about this extremely young and cunning teacher.

“Also,” he continues, after noticing no one’s going to suddenly raise their hands and deny his assumption. “There won’t be any assigned seats in this class. There’s no need for them, since I have no interest in learning your names. All that matters in this class are your grades. If you have sucky grades, meaning anything below a 90, you will be kicked out of the class because I don’t tolerate low grades. Got it?”

Once again I look around to find the students with their mouths wide open, never expecting those words to leave the teacher’s lips. I hadn’t let his words affect me so far but hearing him say that infuriates me a bit. Who is he to kick a student out for getting a grade below a 90? He must know everyone makes mistakes and there’s no way in hell every single student will manage to get a grade higher than a 90 on every assignment, myself included.

I want to say something, tell him that he’s being really unfair. But his eyes meet mine for a brief second and any thoughts of standing up for everyone else in the room dissipate. His grey eyes look cold and daring. Daring for that one hand to go up and complain. He’s waiting for it so he can completely destroy it with his sly words and threats of being sent to a regular English class.

I keep my mouth shut, but decide to leave it for another time, secretly hoping he didn’t notice my annoyed and slightly angered expression.

“Given that I won’t be collecting your summer assignments, I will be giving you a short written assignment to see how your writing skills are.” My heart stops at that moment. “I want you all to write about something you did this summer that changed you, either physically or mentally. A change you can personally see, or others around you can see. Have in mind I don’t want an essay, just a short paragraph.”

He walks to his desk and takes a stack of paper out of his black suitcase. He then goes to the first seat in the first row and places a single sheet of paper on the desk. I’m too far to really tell but it looks like a blank sheet of paper. “I will be separately handing each of you your own sheet of paper, don’t turn it around until I say so.” He goes around each student and hands them the paper, placing it faced down on their desks. When the teacher hands me the last piece of paper, I look up to him and notice how his eyes are more of a steel grey color, the light from above making them sparkle. They’re a color I’ve never seen before, almost exotic, like the places Armin talks about. But although I’ve been openly staring at him, he doesn’t look me. The paper is already on my desk and he starts walking back to the front of the room.

“You have about thirty minutes to complete the assignment.” He says after looking at the clock. “Also, only write in black ink, I won’t grade your paper if it’s in any other color, even blue.” The students have already heard enough peculiar things coming from Mr. Ackerman today, so this time they are not even surprised. “You can turn your papers now.”

I turn my paper then go to take out my pen from my book bag, glad that it’s black.

“Excuse me.” I hear a whisper coming from my left. I look up to find light brown eyes looking at me. “Do you have a black pen I can borrow?” I nod, noticing how his cheeks and nose are painted with freckles.

“Yeah, I do.” I take out the extra pen I have in my bag, handing it to him.

“Thanks,” he quietly says after taking the pen, smiling at me before turning back to his desk.

I quickly scan the sentences at the top of the paper, sentences that explain the task just how the teacher did. I write my name on the paper and start thinking about something that changed my life this summer.

There’s only one thing that was new during the summer, and that was starting to work at the bookstore. After Armin advised me to help his grandfather run the store by working for him, I accepted. At first I didn’t want to start working to sell books. Selling meant dealing with customers and I didn’t want to deal with anyone. But after a week of working alongside Armin, I realized that everything I knew about life was wrong. I read a whole book for the first time, with Armin’s help of course. But after that I was able to read on my own, getting immersed into new adventures. Reading all those books made me figure out that life _is_ hard, but there’s so many ways to deal with it. I can’t count how many books I read but all of the stories within them, all the characters and their adventures changed the way I viewed the world. Although most of them were fiction, those books helped me learn that there’s a world out there full of strangers all different and complex and living life with their own difficulties.

I finished the summer with a passion for reading and a new-found feeling of wanting to live, wanting to succeed. And that bookstore changed me because my depression slowly went away

But although I now know how to perfectly read and comprehend college level books, writing is still a difficult task. I know what I want to write about but I have no idea how to start it or develop it. I look at the clock, five minutes have passed of me in deep thought. I look towards the freckled boy, he’s already halfway down the page. I look back at my paper, pen in hand ready to start writing, but still nothing comes. I look back at the clock, another minute has passed.

I softly sigh, diverting my eyes toward the teacher and my heart skips a beat when I find his eyes on me. I stare at him like a deer stuck in headlight, a little flustered because now he knows I haven’t even started to write anything. His eyes don’t leave mine until I look down to my paper. I lift my pen up, doing something I have been taught to do my whole life, restating the question.

 _One thing I did this summer that changed me was_ … I secretly look up to check if Mr. Ackerman’s gaze is still directed at me, but his eyes have traveled to another student, inspecting her instead. I think for a second before I start writing whatever comes to mind.   _When I start my first job at a book store that my best friend’s grandpa own_ s. _It changed my life because I met new people and read new books and learning_ _new things. I learned that life is good and there are alot of things I want to do now that I didn’t want to do before ~~like go to school~~. I want to stop being a loner at home and go visit other place of the world. So getting a job of selling books changed my life because I used to be sad when the summer started but when it ends I am happy again._

I put my pen down, not able to write anything else. The clock tells me there’s only five minutes left of class anyways. I scan the room and notice everyone else is done already, their papers full of words, some so long I can see they continues in the back although there are no lines for writing at the back like there are at the front. I bet the teacher won’t be too happy about the essays that students have written him.

Mr. Ackerman stands up from his desk. “Alright, you can leave your papers at the top right corners of your desks. I’ll be collecting them once you have left. Make sure you push your chairs in as well.”

The freckled boy catches my attention when I notice the pen I let him borrow floating in my line of vision.

“Thank you again.” He smiles at me.

“It’s no problem,” I reply with my own smile.

“I’m Marco.” His hand is extended at me.

“Eren,” I hear myself say, my own hand reaching his into a handshake. I notice we are the only ones talking, there are some students looking our way with a warning look in their eyes. But I pretend I don’t notice.

“Nice to meet you.” I warmly say.

The freckled boy, Marco, goes to speak but the bell rings cutting him off. I nod at him, knowing what he was going to say, and put the two pens in my bag. Marco leaves the classroom talking to another boy. He has been the first person to talk to me today apart from Mikasa, Armin and a couple of teachers. I’ve never been good at making friends, too temperamental to keep them close, but maybe this year there will be new people added to my group of friends.

I smile at the thought, walking out of the class, giving the teacher a second glance. He’s sitting at his desk again, scanning a piece of paper. I have the urge to say something, goodbye maybe, but I don’t. I’m the last student to exit the class and before I leave I silently close the door and head to my locker.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

Levi looks over his list of students, thirty in total. Next to their names he can see their past grades in their past English classes, starting from 9th grade. He scans the page, reading over the grades. His eyes meet the numbers 96, 94, 99, 92 95 and other ones in the nineties until he sees the last grade on the list, the number 72 makes his small grey eyes grow twice their size.

“What the fuck?” He reads the number again, making sure he didn’t mistake a 9 for a 7. But no, his vision is sharp and the number 72 stares back at him. He moves his finger left until they meet the name of the grade’s corresponding name. “Eren Yeager?” Levi says the name out loud, stunned to have a student with such a horrible grade in his class. He shakes his head, prepared to discuss the matter with the person responsible for having him teach a high school class in the first place.

He lets the piece of paper fall, pushing the matter to the back of his head for the moment. He starts collecting the pieces of paper from the students, in the same order he handed them out. Small curses could be heard as he sees some students have written way over the limit, having the dignity to even mess it all up and write on the back of the paper.

“So fucking stupid,” Levi grumbles out loud. When he reaches the last piece of paper he is surprised to find how little the student has written. He remembers it was the boy with the green eyes that sat there, the one who instead of writing looked around the room until their eyes met and the boy started writing right away.

Levi surprises himself by wanting to know the boy’s name, although he told all of them he wasn’t interested in learning their names. There was something about those green eyes…

But then he reads the name, he finds himself saying the same name out loud for the second time that day. “Eren Yeager.”

He should’ve stopped there, he really shouldn't have read any further. But he does, because he's curious, and also a bit furious because _why_ is this Eren in his class when he isn’t supposed to be there?

So he doesn’t stop there, and even though he hasn't moved back to his desk and is still standing in front of Eren’s desk—a name he has already learned—he starts reading what said student wrote. And when he's reading it he's surprised he hasn’t let all the papers he's holding fall from his grasp, because _goddamn_ , what he just read must’ve killed a few brain cells and he cannot just stand around and do nothing about it. So he does what seems best and heads towards the English department office, Eren’s paper still in hand, all the others forgotten in said student’s desk.

He walks fast, eyes lit up with a visible coldness, and he is furious because of Eren's mere existence and also because the student has gotten to him. His expression is no longer calm, his eyebrows are furrowed and that’s the first thing Erwin notices when Levi walks into his office, not bothering to knock on the door with the words _Erwin Smith, English Department Director_ written on it.

“Why the fuck is this ‘Eren Yeager’ in my class?” Erwin raises his eyebrow, not really surprised at Levi’s behavior or choice of words.

“What was that?” Erwin stands up and goes to close the door that was previously slammed into the wall.

“Eren. Yeager. This kid who is as stupid as they come and cannot write to save his life! Why the fuck is his sitting in my class wasting my paper, my time and my breathing space?!” Levi shoves Eren’s writing into Erwin’s hand, expecting him to read it.

Erwin has trouble keeping his laugh in, not only from how comical the writing is but also from Levi’s behavior, which he’s already used to.

“He definitely is something,” Erwin contemplates, which just makes Levi send him a deadly glare, already calming down now that’s he’s in the presence of another person.

“Not only that but he’s grade for last year was a 72! And that was a regular English class, not AP Lang like the rest of the class. We talked about his Erwin, I’d accept the job if you didn’t give me a bunch of stupid kids. The instructions were clear and you agreed to them. The students I would teach all had to have taken English Honors 9th and 10th grade, and AP Language last year. All the courses passed with a grade higher than a 90.”

“That’s right, that’s what we agreed on.”

“Then tell me why there’s a kid who never took an Honors or AP class for English, and all his grades have been lower than a 90 sitting in my class?”

Erwin goes to sit down and motions Levi to sit as well, which he doesn’t.

“I thought I told you this but apparently I didn’t.” Erwin pinches the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. “In order for you to be allowed to have your own class, there was a requirement of having 30 students enrolled in it. We got up to 29, meaning we needed one more. All the other kids in Ms. Ral’s AP class did not meet your expectations, only 29 did. But there were just enough students to fill in her two classes, meaning we couldn’t take one out from hers. We had to put an extra student in your class that firstly was not already in Ms. Ral’s class after we did the changes, and secondly did not meet your expectations. I believe that student was this Eren you are talking about, who I also believe was enrolled in Ms. Ral’s class, but taken out last minute.”

Levi stays quiet for a moment, thinking about Erwin’s words. “Then why couldn’t they put a kid with a higher grade in my class, one with an 89 perhaps? A fucking 72 can, you _believe_ that?” Levi lets out a big sigh, already not wanting to think about this kid who was too stupid to even _think_ about.

“I’m afraid he was the only one who wasn’t in AP Lang last year and did not have an average higher than a 90 that actually applied to the course. Every other student knows it’s a lost cause to even write down that class in their course recommendations, especially if they don’t meet those expectations.” Erwin looks expectantly at Levi, awaiting his reply.

“Alright, I understand now,” is all he says. “I got it, now take him out of my class.”

Now it’s Erwin’s turn to sigh, expecting this request from the beginning. “You know I can’t do that.” He tells Levi. “I can’t just take a student out of a class once he’s already placed there. The only way a student can be removed is if they fail the first quarter, or they personally ask to drop the class.” Erwin regrets saying those last words, knowing very well Levi is capable of making the poor kid fail the quarter and want to drop out at the same time.

Levi nods, all anger gone from his eyes. Instead, the anger is replaced by a pensive look, one through which a mental map can be seen. A map with dots and lines that tell exactly how he would bring Eren down, never to be seen in his class again.

Erwin can see Levi is close to smiling, no, more like smirking. But he just stands there, lost in thought. Then suddenly he nods his head, grabs Eren’s paper from Erwin’s hand, and goes to leave without a word.

“Levi,” Erwin’s voice stops Levi right when he’s about to open the door. Levi doesn’t turn around to face the speaker, not like Erwin was expecting him to anyways.

“Remember this is a high school, very different from college. Students tend to be more… unpredictable, for lack of a better word.”

Levi laughs, a dry, sarcastic laugh. “I’m not afraid of stupid, incompetent brats.” He walks out before Erwin has a chance to speak again.


	2. Spark Ignited to Raging Wildfire

I arrive home with Armin soon after leaving school. We both live in the same apartment complex, meaning we get to ride the same bus and get off at the same stop.

We have always lived closed to each other, giving Armin the opportunity to always come over. He used to drop by once or twice a week, but after summer break came and there was no school, he developed the habit of coming over every day. If it weren’t for him, I would’ve spent all my time at home alone, since Mikasa was always working and there was no one else to keep me company.

Even now that school has started again, Armin still spends most of his time in my house. The time he doesn’t spend in my house it spent either at school or at work. Since we go to the same school and I started working at the same place he does when summer started, we are always together. Armin is like a brother to me, and I owe so much to him so I don’t mind his company.

“What are we eating today?” Armin asks when we enter my apartment and walk to the kitchen, dropping our bags on the table.

“I don’t know about you but I’m eating cereal.”

Armin rolls his eyes at me. “Of course you’d eat the easiest thing to make.”

“You know I don’t cook, and I already ate ramen this morning.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but decides against it and just shuts his lips. I’m guessing he was going to say something about things that should be eaten for breakfast and things that should be eaten for lunch.

“What are you gonna eat?” I pour the milk into the bowl full of frosted flakes, carefully trying not to overflow it. 

“I think I’ll settle for cereal as well.” So that’s why he didn’t say anything. “I don’t want to waste time making something, we have to go to work soon.”

“At what time did your grandpa say we have to be there?”

He thinks for a moment. “He didn’t say a time, just said to get there the soonest we can. Summer is over so we can’t work in the morning. He now he has to find someone to cover for him during the morning, otherwise he’ll have to close the store during those hours.”

“Really?” I pass the milk to Armin, who has filled his own bowl with frosted flakes.

“That’d be the only option if he can’t find anyone.” I look at his face as he pours the milk over his cereal, noticing the worried expression that has taken over his features at the mention of the subject.

Armin’s family has owned the bookstore downstairs for a long time now. His grandfather planned to pass it down to Armin’s father, but certain things that I’m not very familiar with happened and sadly it couldn’t be that way. Since there was no other option, Armin’s grandpa had to continue working by himself, while raising Armin as well. When Armin grew old enough he started helping out at the store as much as he could. But right before the summer started the old man had a stroke that left him in the hospital for a couple of weeks, leaving Armin, already 16, to run the store in his behalf. That’s when he asked for my help and since I was doing nothing with my life at the time, I agreed to help him out.

Although Mr. Arlert is out of the hospital now, he is still weak and cannot stay in the store for long periods of time. If he can’t find anyone to cover for him during the mornings, then he’ll have to close the store during that time, only opening it a couple of hours before we get home from school and help him keep it running.

I know how much the place means to Armin and his grandpa. Not have it open during the morning means they won’t earn enough to keep it running, eventually having to close it down. Not only would Armin lose one of the most valuable things in his life, but he and his grandpa will lose their income that helps them pay their rent for both the apartment and the store.

I don’t ever want to see that happen to Armin.

“We should hurry up then,” I say, stuffing my face with the cereal, trying to finish it quick.

“Yeah,” is all he says, eating his own cereal at a fast pace.

Once we finish, we leave the apartment and head down to the first floor. We live in the downtown area of the city, were most of the buildings are apartments with businesses being run on the first floors. My apartment is on the 3rd floor and Armin’s is on the second floor.

We reach the store and open the door, the bell at the top ringing and making Armin’s grandpa look our way to greet us. He’s leaning against the counter, a book in hand.

“Hello boys,” he warmly smiles at us.

“Hey Pa,” Armin walks over the gray haired man and gives him hug. I wave at him as I stand in front of the counter.

“How was school?” He asks, looking at both of us one after the other.

I don’t say anything, knowing Armin would have a way better answer than me. And just like I expected, he does.

“It was great! I love all my classes and all my teachers are great! I’m so glad we finally get to go back.”

I laugh at his enthusiasm directed towards school. He has to be the only person I’ve met that loves school to such extent.

“I’m happy to hear that,” Mr. Arlert replies. He directs his attention to me. “How about you Eren, how was school for you?”

I smile at him, the fact that he wanted to hear how school was for me warms up my heart. Ever since he heard the news about my parents he has treated me like I was his grandchild as well.

“It’s was alright. Unlike Armin, some of my classes are pretty boring and I’ve got some pretty weird teachers. Can’t say I’m glad to be back either.” Mr. Arlert weakly laughs at my words, but soon after a small cough starts to appear.

Armin pats his back.

“Let’s take you back upstairs now Pa, me and Eren can handle it from now on.” I nod my head even though neither of them are looking my way.

When Armin comes back his face no longer contains the smile he had presented his grandpa earlier. He lets out a big sigh as he makes his way to the register, but stops in his tracks when he notices I’d been watching him.

“Are you okay?” I know it’s a stupid question and it’s obvious that he’s not okay, but I’m not used to seeing an upset Armin, and it bothers me to no end.

“No, I’m not.” He says, we’ve known each other long enough to know there is no reason for lies. “To be honest, I am happy that school has started again. But at the same time I’m upset because it means I won’t be here helping Pa out. Because I won’t be here we might end up losing something that has been in our generation for a long time.” He looks up at me with teary eyes. “I don’t want that to happen Eren.”

I close the distance between us and hold him in my arms. It hurts to see Armin like this because he means so much to me. When I was hurting he was always there for me, so I’m determined to do the same. He’s like a brother to me and I’d do anything to help him get through this, just like he did for me.

“It’s going to be okay Armin,” I pat his head, something he would do to me. “We’ll find someone to cover for your grandpa, nothing bad will happen.”

He gets out of my grasp and smiles up at me. “Thank you, Eren.”

I nod at him, and with that being said he nods back at me and goes to start fixing up books and putting them in their right place.

Now that he visibly looks better and is doing something to occupy himself, I let out a breath I had been holding in and reassure myself that yes, everything will be alright for Armin, just like it has been for me.  

 A couple of costumers come into the store, but not a lot. Since there’s nothing else to do other than dealing with costumers or doing what Armin is already doing, I start searching through the racks to see if I find a book interesting enough to make the time go by.

My eyes are scanning the fiction section when something grabs my attention. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the big colorful eye that’s on the cover, or maybe the title that reads _What My Eyes Tell You,_ but either way I instantly start reading the book, not even bothering to read the summary.

When the time comes to close, I’m still caught up in the book and because Armin insists, I take it home with me.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

A sound wakes me up so I move around the bed until I slowly open my eyes to see Mikasa looking over me.

“Mikasa,” I say, my voice a little raspy since only just having woken up.

“Hey,” She pulls the covers over me until the reach my chin. “Go back to sleep.”

“What time is it?” I mumble, trying to keep my eyes open.

“It’s late, you need to sleep. I didn’t mean to wake you, just wanted to check up on you.”

“It’s okay.” I smile up at her, my eyes threatening to close. I reach out to my bedside table in search of my phone, but Mikasa stops me from grabbing it.

“You don’t need to know the time, it will just make it harder for you to fall asleep. You’ve been doing so great lately.” She smiles and reaches down to press a kiss to my forehead. “Goodnight Eren, I love you.”

“’Night Mikasa. Love you too.” I close my eyes, letting the little bit of sleepiness that is still left behind after waking up take over me. Mikasa is right, if I looked at the time or completely came back to my senses, going to sleep would be a nightmare.

“No more thinking Eren, just fall asleep.” Mikasa’s voice is a soft whisper that eases me into my slumber. She knows me so well, I don’t know what I’d do without her.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

“Eren! Wake up!” Mikasa yells out the same words for the third time this morning. I quietly chuckle, turning a page of the book I couldn’t continue reading last night.

After thinking it over I’ve realized why Mikasa was in my room so late last night. Last night I was still reading the book when I jumped into bed. Something about it was so familiar and it drew my attention to it, so I must’ve fallen asleep while reading it, which is probably why I managed to fall asleep so easily in the first place.

“Eren!” I hear her footsteps heading in the direction of my room as well as her mumbling to herself. “I knew it was too good to be true, you waking up on your own and all. What kind of false hope is that?” Her voice is right outside my room now, so not wanting her to see me reading a book and pretending to be asleep, I pull the covers over me and push the book under my pillow.

“I swear if I have to repeat myself I will strangle you with my own two hands.” She’s in my room now, making empty threats. Her dark humor will always amuse me, but even though those were empty threats, I didn’t want to test how far she could go.

“Ummm…” I push the covers off, slowly getting up and rubbing my eyes. I pretend to be hurt by the sunlight being let in through the window. “What was that?” I mumble and open one eye to look at Mikasa. I lazily smile at her, “Oh, ‘morning Mikasa.”

Her face is serious for a couple of seconds before she starts laughing. “Eren, what do you take me for?”

I raise one eyebrow at her, pretending to still be out of it.

She shakes her head, not elaborating on her last statement. “Just get up before I hit you in the head. I must say, you’re a very good actor, but I’ve known you all your life. You can’t trick me.” She smirks at me and leaves the room, turning on the light before closing the door.

I laugh to myself for being stupid enough to believe she would believe my little act. I take a look at my cellphone and notice I have enough time to prepare myself, since it’s only 6:13am.

After I take a shower and get dressed, I head out to the kitchen were Mikasa is once again packing her lunchbox. She always makes two meals for herself, not counting breakfast, which I’m sure she already ate. She doesn’t get to come home till late at night, not having enough time between when college ends and when work starts.

“You didn’t make ramen again today, did you?” I walk towards the stove, but she responds before I get there.

“Of course not.” She laughs. “I only did that yesterday because it was your first day of your senior year. If you’re going to eat ramen for breakfast every day, might as well do it yourself by putting it in the microwave.” She finishes packing everything up and heads to the door to grab the same black sweater she always wears. She walks back towards me as she’s putting it on and when she’d done she engulfs me in a hug.

“Have a good day at school.” Just like last night, she kisses my forehead after releasing me from her hug.

“You too,” I reply. “I love you.” I warmly smile at her, my gratitude to her for being in my life evident in my eyes.

“I love you, too Eren.” And just like that she’s out the door with all the things she’ll need for the rest of the day.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

Twelve… twenty-five… nine…“Got it!” I grin to myself as I open my locker, glad to have remembered the combination without having to look the numbers up on my schedule.

“Good job.” Armin opens his locker with ease, not needing to even remember his combination, since he’s been opening his locker every school day for the past three years the numbers just come to him.

I’m not sure if he means his words or if he’s being sarcastic, either way I let them slide, happy to see he’s in a better mood than he was yesterday.

After we have both finished taking what we need from our lockers and putting away what we don’t, Armin turns to me with a grin on his face. “Are you ready for another day of school?”

“You mean another day in hell?” We begin to walk to our first period classes, but we still have about ten minutes before school officially starts.

He rolls his eyes at me “Oh, come on, you know you love it. At least that AP Lit class. What did you think of your teacher? Mr. Ackerman, was it?”

At the sound of his name my fist close on their own. “He’s a dick.”

“Why would you say that?” Armin stops in his steps and looks at me with a puzzling look.

“Because that’s what he is, a dick. I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“Oh. Okay.” I feel bad for not really explaining myself and talking to Armin that way, but for some reason just thinking about that man, Levi, makes me angry.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that he’s very rude and weird, so I don’t like him at all.”

“It’s okay, he must be a real pain if he makes you feel this way.”

“He sure is.”

Armin starts talking about something else, sensing that I didn’t want to talk about my AP Lit teacher. Before we know it the bell rings and it’s time for school to officially begin. When we reach the senior floor, Armin walks towards the Math wing and I keep walking to the Science wing just like yesterday.

“Okay, double period physics today, I can do this!” I look around after whispering those words to myself, luckily no one was looking at me weird, meaning they didn’t hear me just talk to myself.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

The day seems to slowly drag by, especially after having to sit in the same boring class for two periods straight right at the beginning of the day, but before I know it, it’s already 8th period.

I walk as slow as I can to that class, hoping that maybe they had made a mistake yesterday with the teacher and give us Ms. Ral again. But all hope for that dies down when I enter the room right when the bell rings, and sitting on the teachers desk is no other than Mr. Ackerman. For some reason I don’t want to call him Levi like he asked of us. Maybe calling him Mr. Ackerman for the remaining of the school year would get on his nerves.

“You’re late,” he says, glaring at me with eyes that could make me disappear if he had the ability to.

“No I’m not, the bell just rang.” I break eye contact and make my way to my seat, completely ignoring not only Levi’s glare but the stares of everyone else in the room.

“Yeager.” The sound of my name makes me stop dead in my tracks. How did he even know my name? Didn’t he say he didn’t want to learn any of our names? Lost in thoughts I forgot to respond or even turn around, making me look spoiled, not that I care, he doesn’t deserve my respect.

“Turn around and face me when I speak to you.” The sound of his voice sends shivers down my spine, and not the good kind of shivers, no, these were the ones you get when you hear a noise in your house when you thought you were all alone.

Reluctantly, I turn around to face him. He’s still sitting at his desk, expression as calm as ever, his dead, boring eyes piercing into my own. “If you’re not in your seat by the time the bell rings, then that means you are late.”

He raises one eyebrow at me, probably expecting some type or respond, but I remain quiet, not even knowing what to say so that I don’t end up murdered and found in a dumpster in some alley in the bad parts of the city.

When he realizes I’m not going to say anything and rather stay there not breaking his eye contact, he smirks at me. “Understood?”

I bite my tongue before responding as nonchalantly as I could. “Of course, Mr. Ackerman.” I smile at him and turn around before he can say anything else, heading straight to my seat all the way at the back. At this point all eyes in the room are looking back and forth between Levi and me. I roll my eyes at this and just stare out the window until someone decides that class should start. But of course I have no such luck when I hear my name escape the teacher’s lips once again.

“Yes, Mr. Ackerman?” I respond as calm as I can, turning my gaze towards the front of the room where Levi has already gotten up from his desk, with a pile of papers on his hands.

“Please see me at the end of class. And Levi will be just fine.”

At first my mind wraps around his first sentence. _See me at the end of class_. That could mean so many things. Maybe my body will be found in that dumpster after all. Or maybe he’s going to be giving me detention, and hell knows how much I don’t want to spend more than 45 minutes with this ass of a teacher. But after dwelling on his first sentence, my mind settles on his next set of words, I have no chance to even stop myself before the words are out of my lips.

“I prefer to call you Mr. Ackerman, if that’s not a problem with you. I call all my other teachers by their last names, why should you be the exception?”

At this point not only am I going to be found dead in some ally, but I’ll be so cut up into pieces that no one will recognize who I am.

By the time I respond he has already started handing out the papers he was holding, so he pretends not to hear me and continues to pass the papers out. I let out a small scoff that doesn’t go unnoticed by the students surrounding me, who all still continue to glance awkwardly at me. I once again ignore them and try to not think about what’s going to happen to me if I stay after class like Mr. Ackerman asked me to.

The teacher is almost done handing the papers out, and it’s not until I see him coming down my isle that the nervousness comes back again. I look at him as he makes his way down the aisle, noticing how his lips are moving and it isn’t until then that I realize I’ve been blocking out whatever he has been saying for the past minutes.

He reaches my desks and puts a very familiar paper down on my desk. I’m not even surprised when I find a big fat red F- at the top of the paper we wrote yesterday. Is F- even a letter you use when grading?

Too occupied by the F- on my paper, I fail to realize Levi is still standing by my desk. I slowly look up to him to find the same dead look on his face.

“You’re right, call me Mr. Ackerman,” he says, a blank look on his face, which doesn’t let me see how he feels at the moment, not that I could before, or ever could since I met him, he’s like a blank book with nothing to show. “Since I’m like all your other teachers, you can treat me like you treat them. And since I’m like them, I’ll treat you like they treat you.”

I feel my blood stop flowing through my veins and maybe it’s visible how scared I look because Mr. Ackerman smirks at me and pats my head, easily turning back around to the front of the room to begin teaching for real.

I’m still in la-la-land when he starts explaining to the class something about college essays. My mind is lost in his words, and it doesn’t take me long to realize his threat. He is not like my other teachers, and he knows this, and he also knows that I know this. And since he isn’t like my other teachers, there is no way in hell he’s going to treat me like they all do.

I force all negative thoughts out of my head and look up to the front of the room where Levi is currently writing the steps to how to write the best college essay. Coming back to reality makes the words he is speaking gain full volume.

“…if you do these steps you are guaranteed to have written a captivating, one-of-a-kind essay. The most important thing to remember is to sell yourself to the admission officers that will be reading your essays. They have to see all the things you are capable of, all the great things you’ve accomplished and can accomplish…”

I tune his words out once again. Although he’s a major dick, he is a good teacher when it comes to actual teaching. I look around the room and notice all the students are taking notes in their notebooks, something I should be doing as well. But I can’t bring myself to do that because there is no point. I meant it when I said yesterday was my last first day of school. There’s no reason to write a college essay if you’re not even going to go to college, which was my plan. College would be a waste of time, time that could be spent doing more important things like working and earning money to get by.

Even though I know that what Mr. Ackerman is teaching would most likely result in us having to write an essay for a grade, I can’t bring myself to pay attention. But instead of looking out the window for the rest of the period like I planned on doing, my eyes remain to the front of the room where Levi is still talking about, I believe, writing strategies or something of the sort, I can’t really tell because I’m not listening to his words, but rather hearing the sound of his voice.

Surprisingly, the sound of his voice isn’t hateful like his eyes, but quite soothing.

Before I know it the rest of the period goes by with my eyes still glued to his every movement and my ears welcoming the sounds his voice makes. For some reason there’s something very familiar about him, it reminds me about something I’ve read before.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

The class empties out right when the bell rings, but I stay seated at my seat. I don’t know what happened to me for the past 30 minutes but I was completely out of it. For some reason when the bell rang I found myself staring at Mr. Ackerman like he hung the stars in the sky, I don’t know how that came to happen but I’d rather not think about it.

When everyone is out the door, I get up and make my way to the teacher’s desk. Walking that short distance makes me a bit nervous, but when I reach him and look into his cold grey eyes, all nervousness is gone and instead the anger I felt from this morning is back. Although I previously planned on just calling him Levi from now on, I can’t stop myself from playing with fire.

“Mr. Ackerman, you wanted to see me?” My voice comes out sweeter than I intend. I didn’t want to sound nervous or frightened, but I also didn’t want to sound angry, which is how I feel at the moment.

At the sound of his last name he slightly raises his eyebrow but quickly does a decisive nod. Maybe he needed reassurance that killing me was the answer, and now he has reached a conclusion.

“Yes, I did.” He signals for me to get a chair to sit at in front of his desk, but I refuse.

“I need to get going soon, or I’ll miss the bus. I have to go to work now.”

Something I say makes him chuckle, but not a good chuckle like I’m used to hearing from Armin and Mikasa, no. His chuckle sound devilish and judgmental. I have an idea he’s mentally making fun of me because I’m a senior who still takes the bus. Who cares anyways?

“I see. Then I’ll make this quick.”

I nod, wanting for him to hurry it up.

“Drop out of my class.”

“What?” My mind goes blank, that is not even close to what I was expecting him to say.

“You heard me, I don’t want you in my class so I’m asking you to drop out.”

It takes me a while to respond under his judging gaze. “You-you can’t do that! You can’t ask a student to drop out, that’s fucking mental!”

Even though I’m close to yelling he’s still unfazed by all of this. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just curse at me. But yes, I can, and I just did. I want you to drop this class as soon as possible.”

“I can’t—I can’t just do that because you told me to! What type of teacher asks their student to drop out of their class?”

“Ah, here we go again, assuming like I’m your other teachers. Let me tell you something, Eren Yeager; I’m nothing like your other teachers. I’m asking you to drop out of my class, and I’m doing it nicely. If you don’t do as I say, then you’ll see just how different I am from your other teachers, understand?”

I can’t find anything to say. What can I say in this situation? I could submissively comply with his request and get out of his class faster than you can say ‘coward’. Or, I could stop anyone from calling me a coward and determinedly deny his request.

Looking into his steel eyes I swear I saw an orange spark ignite.

“Oh, Mr. Ackerman. I’d love to find out how different you are from my other teachers. Maybe along the way you’ll also find out how I’m nothing like your other students.” I grin at him but before I leave I don’t fail to realize that the orange spark he had in his eyes has grown into a raging wildfire too strong to detain.  

 


	3. The Sky Has A Mind Of Its Own

After telling Mr. Ackerman those words which I didn’t plan, they just slipped out and I’m pretty sure that Mr. Ackerman is going to give me hell tomorrow for them, I walk out of the class trying to not think about the fire my words left in his eyes. Although I was a bit scared of what he was going to do to me, after the little episode that happened back in his classroom I have realized that there’s no reason to fear a jerk life him.

When I exit his classroom I literally run towards the front of the school, fearing that I may be too late.

Of course, luck is never on my side because upon exiting the doors of the school entrance, there is no trace of any yellow buses around.

I have missed the bus and there is no one else to blame but Mr. Ackerman. If he hadn’t kept me back to speak such atrocities to me this wouldn’t have happened.

“Fuck!” I yell to no one in particular. The person whom I’d like to curse for eternity is nowhere around and I don’t know if I should be glad for that or not.

I take out my phone and another curse word escapes my mouth, I am going to be late to work. I decide to send a quick text to Armin so he doesn’t worry about me not showing up in the next hour or so, which is how long it takes to walk home.

“Argh!” For some reason I can’t get his words out of my head, which just makes me even angrier. “Curse you Levi Ackerman.” I was sure I didn’t like my AP Lit teacher but after what happened after class today I’m definitely sure I hate the man.

_'Drop out of my class.'_

“Ah! Who does he think he is? Like hell I’m doing anything he says…”

My mind is too preoccupied in repeating Levi’s words over and over that I fail to notice the dark clouds that adorn the sky.

I continue walking towards home and that’s when I feel it, the thick rain drops that slowly start falling down on me. At first they're slow but not even a minute passes before they’re completely drowning me.

I start running to avoid the harshness of the raindrops, since they’re falling pretty hard, but it’s no use. There’s still a long way to my house and I’m already drenched.

The desire to just drop on the ground and lay there is immerse, but after everything that has happened today doing such an act will be seen as an act of weakness, and for some reason I don’t want to be seen as weak even if no one is around. And that’s when I see it, the silver car that has stopped a couple of feet in front of me.

I notice it because it wasn’t there mere seconds ago, meaning it just recently stopped there, going by the brake lights that are still on.

The rain is falling pretty hard which makes it hard for me to see who’s in the car, but the whole scene is giving me the creeps so I continue walking like everything is fine, passing the car without giving it a second glance.

After walking for about a minute the car still hasn’t passed me by, which makes me walk faster because there’s a strange voice in my head telling me the person in there is watching me and that unnerves to no end.

I don’t walk too far when I see the car drive by me, passing through a huge puddle of water and in the process drenching me more than I already was. I look at the car that’s already too far to be clearly seen in the rain but I’m pretty sure it’s the same silver car that was giving me the creeps. I look back and surely, the car’s not standing where it was before.

“Fuck!” If I didn’t want to lay down on the wet ground before because of my pride, then all those thoughts are thrown out the window because my day couldn’t have gotten any worse. Not only am I wet, late to work, and walking an hour long distance, but I’m dirty as well.

After taking the time to breathe in and out until I calm down, I start walking towards home again, my thoughts once again filled with Mr. Ackerman and how much I hate him.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

“Oh my God, what happened to you?” Armin hurriedly walks towards me when I enter the doors of the store, completely drenched and dripping water everywhere.

“I-I didn’t h-have an u-umbrella…” I’m not sure if he hears my mumbled words, but it doesn’t matter either way because he’s already by my side, taking my backpack in his hands and removing my wet jacket.

“Come on, let’s get you dry.”

“Hmm,” I hum in reply, unable to speak anymore words. Seeing Armin take care of me in this way just makes me more emotional than I already was to begin with.

Armin leads me to the back of the store, where there’s a small bathroom were Armin’s grandpa keeps important things that will come in handy, like a towel that Armin wraps around me when we’re enclosed in the small space.

“You should just go home, Eren.”

I look at Armin’s worried gaze and quickly shake my head. Now that I’m not being attacked by rain droplets and the cold air isn’t piercing every part of my body I’m able to speak again.

“No, it’s okay. I’m okay,” I try to smile at him but I know he can see my smile isn’t sincere.

“Just go. I’ll be fine by myself, I promise.” He gives out a small laugh. “No one hasn’t even come in since I got here.” He smiles at me so warmly that I bet just by staring at his smile I could get dried instantly.

I want to believe his words, but something tells me he’s just saying them so I don’t feel as bad about leaving him in the store by himself until later tonight. The fact that he knows I will worry about him gives me all types of emotions and I try not to think about how this specific scene reminds me of the past, when I was broken and Armin was constantly there to pick me up again.

“Go,” his single word drives me out of my thoughts. “Go and take a warm bath, drink some hot chocolate and snuggle your blankets.”

I know when Armin has decided upon something, it’s very hard to make him change his mind so no matter what I say I know he’ll be reluctant about letting my stay by his company.

“Okay,” I have no choice but agree. “But I owe you one.” I smile at him again, a real smile this time because I know there’s no such thing as owing each other favors in our relationship.

He smiles back at me and shakes his head, not saying anything as he pushes me out of the store, grabbing an umbrella that his grandpa always keeps under the front desk.

“Here,” he hands the open umbrella to me and continues to push me out the door. “I’ll bring you your backpack later on, don’t even worry about your homework.”

I stop and open my mouth to complain because I know the implications of those words but it’s like he reads my mind and doesn’t let me say anything when I’m already out in the rain again.

The walk from the door of the bookstore to the door of the apartments is not even five foot long, since its located in the same building, but I’m thankful for the umbrella since the rain is still falling hard enough to completely drench me again in the span of the five seconds that it takes to walk those five feet.

When I’m comfortably lying in bed, after having done all that Armin suggested, I take out my phone and send a text to said boy.

_Thank you Armin for everything you do for me. I don’t think the day will come when I stop loving you <3 _

I smile upon reading those words and hit the send button.

After that it doesn’t take me long to fall asleep, the book I was reading last night laying by my side, completely disregarding the fact that I hadn’t thought about Mr. Ackerman at all after all I had gone through because of him.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

There’s no helping how I feel when I enter his classroom the next day.

All day after waking up this morning I had felt at ease, since I hadn’t even gotten sick like I expected. On top of that Armin had been by my side since I got on the bus and came to school, and he always makes things better.

All my classes throughout the day had been going well, and like I had expected Armin had done all my homework the day before, and although I feel bad about it I’m glad I didn’t have much homework to begin with.

That means that although all I feel is dread when I enter Mr. Ackerman’s class, at least it’s not because I didn’t do his stupid homework.

When I enter the classroom the teacher’s sitting at his desk, inspecting some papers. I quietly make my way to my seat, trying not to glare at him in the process.

I sit and prepare myself to tune out his words like I did the day before when the bell rings.

“Okay class.” I try not to think about how smooth his voice is as I stare out the window.

I know I shouldn’t be so obvious about not paying attention, because that will just make him notice more, but I doubt that he’ll even acknowledge my existence when he doesn’t even want me in his class to begin with.

From the corner of my eyes I see him stand up from his desk and walk to the front of the classroom.

“We’re going to continue talk about college essays but before you guys start on the actual assignment, we’re going to discuss other successful essays as examples, so you all can get an idea on how it’s done.”

I don’t want to but I divert my eyes from the tree outside and direct my gaze to Mr. Ackerman, a sudden thought taking over my previous ones that consisted of the birds sitting on the tree branches. Levi has started handing out papers that I assume are those sample essays he wants us to read. When he finishes giving them out to the students sitting in the front rows, they hand the rest of the copies back to the others students.

I receive mine and quickly look at the title.

 **College Essay Sample 1**  
**Author:** Marlo Freudenberg  
**Accepted to** : Karanese University

Just like Utopia University, Karenese is up there among it for being just as prestigious.

Reading those words triggers something in me, and there’s no explaining what happens next and I honestly have no excuse for it.

I raise my hand.

It takes longer than I would’ve wanted to for Mr. Ackerman to notice my action, since he was busy projecting the same paper he previously gave us to the front board. But when he does turn around, the first thing he notices is my outstretched hand. 

He eyes it wearily, and then moves his gaze to my face, an unreadable expression in his grey eyes, just like they normally are. He just looks at me as if looking for something, or maybe willing me to put my hand down and forget I had something to say in the first place, but my words from the day before ring in my ears.

_‘Maybe along the way you’ll also find out how I’m nothing like your other students’_

So I leave my hand up, because maybe it’s time I start showing him I’m not scared of him, and there’s no way I’m leaving his classroom before the words that are threatening to spill leave my lips.

Then his eyes leave mine and he looks at the paper in his hands, like he made up his mind and there was no way he was going to let me speak in his class.

I sigh and prepare myself to place my hand down, but what leaves his lips has me freezing in place.

“Mr. Yeager, do you have something to say?”

The way he says those words has my mind going blank, but for a moment I remember the words repeating themselves in my head, and although I was prepared to just push them out of my head like they weren’t there to begin with, I still say them out loud.

“Mr. Ackerman,” I finally place my hand down and I don’t know if it’s the way I say his last name, or because I once again call him by his last name, his head snaps up and I find his eyes on me once again.

I can’t help the smile that forms on my lips.

“I was wondering… How did you manage to sell yourself in your college essay so they would accept a man like yourself into the most prestigious university of the country?”

I don’t know if my ears are playing tricks on me because there is no way of denying the gasps that fill the classroom after those words are spoken out loud.

The subtle smile is still on my lips, half of the classroom’s eyes are on me, and Mr. Ackerman is looking at me as if I hadn’t even spoken a word.

My eyes are still on him and maybe it’s because I still fear him when I believed I didn’t that time seems to extremely slow down. I swear I can hear the clock ticking although I am as far as I can get from it.

Then he speaks, the same face expression still looking my way.

“Well Mr. Yeager, that’s a great question. I’m glad you thought about it because that’s exactly what I’m going to be teaching you all as well, especially you, since there’s no doubt in my mind that a kid like yourself would be greatly needing to know how to get any university to accept you. I hope you pay special attention to this unit because if you don’t I’m afraid you won’t be going to college at all.”  

Then he smiles at me, no, scratch that, smile shouldn’t be the word to describe the way his lips curl up, so malicious that any man could die from seeing it.

If the class was silent before, his words make everything sound mute, as if I have lost my hearing.

He then starts reading the essay on the board as if nothing has just happened, and all the eyes that were currently on me slowly turn away to concentrate on the paper being read.

I’m still at a loss of words. My mind is blank, all my senses are heightened and there is no way to describe how painful it feels to hear his words resonating through the room. I want to block them out, maybe be deaf for real.

There’s no way to describe the impact his words have on me. It’s like every word I had spoken to myself those months I was a complete different person were all true. It took so long to finally pick myself up for just one person to come in and wreck it all with just a couple of words.

My eyes are still trained on Mr. Ackerman, but the way my chest feels like it is closing within itself makes me once again look out the window. I regret having raised my hand, I regret saying those words. I regret coming into this class in the first place.

Maybe I should’ve accepted his request and dropped out the moment he mentioned it. He is an adult and I am still a child, there’s no way I am stronger than him, and based on his words I should’ve known he is someone that can’t be messed with. I should’ve believed him when he told me he was different.

_Fuck._

I suddenly wish Armin is here to hold me. The thought crosses my mind to leave pretending to go to the bathroom, but as soon as it comes it leaves. If I leave the classroom more attention would land on me, and I would been seen as weak by running away.

I have already embarrassed myself enough.

I’m not paying attention at all, not that I can even if I try. I keep throwing glances at the clock, wishing for time to just fly.

When there are only about five minutes left of class, Mr. Ackerman tells the class he has an important announcement.  Although in those moments I was in la la land I had decided that maybe it was for the best of my mental health to drop out of his class like he wanted me to do, I decide to at least listen to this “important” announcement that probably won’t matter to me anyways.

“I have received word that some of you were upset about the whole summer assignment deal, so I have decided to actually give you a project based on it. It’s not that I care about your feelings, not at all. But if one of you had to decency to complain about the matter to my superior, than I must say, bravo, you’ve made it harder upon yourself and everyone else in this class because of you childish act. Therefore, have fun completing this new assignment, completely different from the one you spent your whole summer doing.”

 _What an evil bitch_. 

I don’t fail to notice how he quickly eyes me when talking about someone completing childish acts. I decide to ignore those looks because I’m already in a sour mood as it is, and since I know it wasn’t me that went around complaining, I didn’t even do the summer assignment to begin with, I ignore him.

He hands out another piece of paper, which I assume is the new assignment.

“This is due in a week’s time. No late assignments will be accepted, and that is all I will say about this subject.” He walks back to his desk and sits down, starting to put his stuff away.

There is about a minute left of class and no one has said a word as they pack their stuff up as well.

I watch the clock like a hawk, feeling like I am suffocating the longer I stay sitting in this classroom.

Then there are only thirty seconds left when Mr. Ackerman speaks up again.

“Oh, and Mr. Yeager, stay after class, please.”

My head snaps his direction, and he is smirking at me. I want the ground to swallow me up and let me rest in peace, but of course such thing would never happen.

He looks away before I could give a response, not that I was planning on giving one anyways.

Then the bell rings, and I don’t think twice before jumping out of my seat and quickly walking to the door, completely disregarding the fact that I was asked to stay after class. There is no way in hell I’m going to stay in the same space as that man after everything that has happened today, God forbid I have an anxiety attack or something of the sort.

But luck is never on my side, never, because he notices me trying to get away.

“Eren.” The sound of my name stops me in my tracks. “I thought I asked you to stay behind.”

_Fuck my life._

So I slowly turn around and face the man who’s already looking at me. I walk his direction and stop right in front of his desk, not wanting to hear anything he has to say, but not having that option either.

I don’t speak a word, it not like I have anything to say.

“I’m pretty sure you know what this is about.” He finally speaks up when everyone else has left the classroom.

“I believe so, sir.” I don’t even want to say his name so sir is the closest thing to it.

“Have you made a different decision yet?” He’s looking at me with a bored expression, but with something else in his eyes, something I still can’t read because the man is one big shell I cannot, and don’t even want to crack.

I had make a different decision moments before, when I was still in my desk contemplating the scene outside, but something is telling me I shouldn’t give up so easily. Something tells me this man doesn’t really want me gone, instead he wants me to put up a fight. I don’t know what it is that tells me he wants me to be difficulty and refuse his request, but I know that’s not what he wanted yesterday. It comes to my attention that his eyes weren’t completely unreadable when I spoke those words to him earlier when he was going to start the lesson. Something flashed in his eyes, like he saw me in a different light.

“Well, have you? There’s somewhere I need to be so please answer so I can leave and we can get this over with.”

Wow. He already thinks I have given up and believes my answer is going to be favorable to him.

“I also don’t want to waste my time speaking with you either Mr. Ackerman. I have somewhere to be as well and because of you I can’t afford to miss the bus once again.” I have made up my mind. I may have been weak in the past, but I am not anymore and I’m not willing to go back to who I used to be. Giving up doesn’t come easy to me, not anymore, I should know better than to believe all things happen without a little struggle. “I have made a decision, and it’s still the same as yesterday, and will continue to be the same. I am staying in this class, and there’s nothing you can do or say that will make me change my mind.” I don’t bother to hear his reply as I make my way out of his classroom with my head held high.

But although I don’t hear his reply, I don’t miss the way his eyes sparkled upon hearing my words, like they were exactly what he wanted to hear.

 

 ✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

When I go outside I’m once again greeted with a sight I don’t want to see. The yellow buses have left and it all feels like a repetition of yesterday.

I take my phone out and text Armin similar words as yesterday's.

I start walking home, this time looking up at the sky before embarking on my journey, happy to see the sky is as clear as it could get.

Different to yesterday, I don’t feel as mad about the fact that I’m walking home because of Mr. Ackerman, since although I had a crappy experience in his classroom, the last words I spoke to him lifted my spirits and managed to erase everything else that happened before.

While walking, I don’t fail to notice the car that passes by me, silver, just like the one yesterday. But since rain isn’t blurring my vision I am able to see who is driving the car this time.

For some reason I am not surprise to see who it is, of course, it is no other than my jerk of a teacher, Levi fucking Ackerman.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

I make it to work completely dry this time, but that doesn’t stop Armin from still looking at me with worry in his eyes.

“What happened? Is it your Lit teacher again?” I nod at his words and walk to stand next to him behind the cash register at the front of the store. I had already told him what happened yesterday and he was very supportive, but didn’t fail to express his discontent towards Mr. Ackerman.

“Did he ask you to drop his class again? You know you could talk to someone about this, since I’m pretty sure what he’s doing goes against the teacher’s code or something of the sort.”

I smile at Armin’s words, of course he’d be smart to know all of that.

“Yeah, he asked me to stay after class to know if I had made up my mind about his request. Of course I told him no way in hell I’m doing anything he asks of me. But although I tried to make it short I still managed to miss the bus. My legs are so sore.” I rub my legs as I say those words, they hurt like hell. I’m not the type to exercise so walking such a long distance for the past two days has taken a toll on my leg muscles.

“I can’t believe he even asked that of you in the first place, such a jerk.”

Armin’s insult makes me laugh, since it’s not often he insults people, and when he does he tries not to use strong words, so even the word jerk is one I’m not used to hearing him say.

“Don’t worry too much about it,” I pat him on the back. “I don’t think he’ll annoy me anymore after today. I made my decision pretty clear to him, so if he even brings the subject up again, he’s a real idiot.”

All I hear from Armin as a response is a hum, as if he knew I didn’t want to continue talking about the subject.

The day goes by respectably easy, not a lot of customers come by and we’re able to get a lot of cleaning and organizing done.

When it’s time to go home, we close the store and get everything ready for the next day so Amin’s grandpa doesn’t have a hard time opening up in the morning.

Amin and I say our goodbyes and the day officially ends for me, since all I do when I get home is shower, eat something, do a bit of homework and head to bed.

I once again pick up the book I haven’t been able to put away. Something about it just keeps dragging me in, making me want to just continue to read it until there’s nothing left to read.

That would’ve happened too, if it weren’t for Mikasa coming home and scolding me to go to sleep and put the book away because I needed to sleep and it’s too late to be up reading anyways.

I laugh at her words and we say our goodnights, exchanging forehead kisses in the process.

There’s no way to explain why my dreams are filled of steel eyes watching me. 

 

 ✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

The rest of the week goes by relatively easy as well. All my classes haven’t gotten hard as I expected them to. I do all my work and homework on time, I get along with the teachers, well, most of them, and I go to school every day.

At work things have gotten better. Customers continue to show up, and it looks like the store won't have to close so far.

I still don’t see Mikasa as much as I’d like to, since she works and studies too much, but she’s always there to kiss me goodnight and make me breakfast in the morning.

AP Literature is still the same as well. I don’t look at Mr. Ackerman, which makes it seem like I’m not paying attention in class, but I listen to every word he says and read every paper he hands out. Although I’m still planning on not going to college, I’d still like to prove to him that I’m capable of more than he expects of me. That means I have to do his assignments. Writing still comes hard to me, which is why I’m thankful all we’ve been doing so far is reading.

I have also brought that book with me to school, so when he makes the class work on their writing, I take it out and read it. I haven’t failed to notice how he eyes me wearily when I read in class instead of doing what he asks of me, but I just ignore him and continue on what I’m doing. He doesn’t know that during work Armin helps me write what I’m supposed to be writing in class. Armin has also been helping me with that summer assignment project, since he read the book already and did the summer assignment for his AP Lit class, and he has been of great help.

Although things are calm, I still haven’t forgotten what Mr. Ackerman did to me that day it rained. I may be seventeen years old but I still have a childish side to me, and that side of me wants revenge for what he did.

I haven’t come up with any plans yet, and I don’t have any ideas either, which is why I ask Mikasa for help on a Thursday night.

“What is a great way to get back at someone after they purposely drove their car through a puddle so the water could splash all over you?” My words don’t surprise her. I have been complaining to her about someone who had been making my life hell, she just didn’t know it was a teacher I was talking about. If she did, well let’s just say things would have been going pretty shitty right now.

I asked for her help because Mikasa has a history of being a dare devil that got into trouble more often that anyone who knew her now would imagine. She’d know exactly what to do.

“Is this person who did that the same person that has been talking shit to you?”

I nod my head at her when she sits on the couch next to me.

“Hmm…” She gives it some thought and I see it when she formulates the plan in her head, so quick that one would think she’s some type of genius.

 “Slash his tires. Wait, no, just deflate them. Don’t want you getting in a lot of trouble,” she smirks at me and no more words are needed.

I hug her because of course, how didn’t I think about it earlier? Deflating at least one of his tires wouldn’t be a problem, since he’d be able to get it fixed easily, he probably even has a company he can call and they’d be on the spot as easy as counting to three.

“But deflate two of them, so he won’t be able to easily just replace one with his spare tire.”

“Thank you so much, you’re a genius.” She laughs after we part from the hug and stands up, facing me before she walks back to the kitchen where she previously was before I asked for her help.

“But just make sure you don’t get caught.”

I nod at her words.

“Now go to sleep, it’s late.” I listen to her and like every other night we say our goodnights.

I try not to lose sleep thinking exactly how I’d be able to deflate Mr. Ackerman’s tires. And when I finally come up with a plan, sleep comes easily.

 

✐✏✎✐✏✎✐✏✎

 

Is not as hard as I thought. When 7th period is about to be over, like there’s only fifteen minutes left, I tell the teacher I need to go to the nurse. I’m pretty sure by this time Levi is already at school, since he needs to prepare himself for class. Armin gives me a weird look of concern, wondering why I may be needing to go to the nurse, but I smile at him to ease his worrying a bit.

I didn’t tell him about my plan because compared to Mikasa, Armin is like the voice of reason, but although he cares about me just as much as Mikasa does, he doesn’t like to harm anybody even if they did me wrong, whereas Mikasa believes those who hurt me deserve to be punished.

I don’t have a lot of time left so I quickly make my way to the back of the school, where there’s an exit and the doors are always open, which students use to their advantage and always walk out of school to skip class.

I place my black hoodie on so if there are cameras nobody recognizes me and walk out into the school parking lot. It takes only a couple of minutes to locate his silver expensive car.

I walk towards it as discreetly as I can, and when I’m near it the first thing I do is check if he has an alarm system, since my whole plan will go to shit if I set the car’s alarm off. But after I check everywhere it could be, I fail to find any. So I take the utensils I had put in my backpack out and just like I had seen in those YouTube videos start the process of deflating his two back tires.

I don’t worry much as I walk back to school after finishing my job, since I’m sure Levi’s the type of man not to worry too much about deflated tires, he must have a bunch of enemies too. 

I make it just in time to enter 8th period without being late. Class goes on as normal and I try to smirk when I look at Mr. Ackerman and what is awaiting him when he leaves school.

 When I’m on the bus heading home, after explaining Armin what I had done, and getting scolded for it of course, I don’t fail to notice how it starts to rain.

I try not to think about Mr. Ackerman being stuck at school with two tires deflated, waiting for whatever car insurance he has to come rescue him from the rain that is pouring down the sky like there's no tomorrow. 

I didn't even know it was going to rain, but maybe Levi Ackerman has really bad karma, and the sky decided to help me in getting back at him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I can't believe it's about to be a year since I last updated this story? It was hard to start writing it again and get the feel of it but well, I managed to write another chapter so yay! I apologize for the whole hiatus, but I'm back and I'm gonna continue writing this gem whether I die in the process. I'm excited again for what's to come ^^  
> Thanks for reading and I promise I won't disappear on this story again, cause i gotta continue this there's just so many things I wanna see happen ahhhh


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